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Kansas City Zoo secures approval for new aquarium

Construction for a new $75 million dollar aquarium is set to begin in 2021 after receiving approval from the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board. The zoo said it will use $45 million from the zoo district sales tax voters passed in 2011 along with private donations.

The Kansas City Zoo received final approval to build a new $75 million aquarium on Tuesday from the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board.

Construction is set to begin in 2021 and will be built on the main path as near the zoo entrance.

Fundraising efforts for the project were slower due to COVID-19, after Kansas City pledged $7 million toward the project in 2018. The rest was to be funded by a 1/8-cent sales tax that Jackson and Clay County residents have been paying since 2011 and private donations.

The zoo said it will use $45 million from the zoo district sales tax voters passed in 2011 along with private donations.

As long as the zoo secures the rest of the project’s funding through private donations, the plan would be to begin construction early next year and open by June 2023.